Cannabis PAC is no joke

Make your joke about how a pro-pot political action committee might raise and spend its cash.

But leaders of the National Cannabis Industry Association PAC, which officially formed Wednesday, say they’re stone-cold serious about navigating D.C.’s corridors of power and money by traditional means.

The PAC plans to solicit association members for start-up funding later this year then begin attending congressional fundraisers and otherwise hobnobbing with lawmakers in early 2013, Treasurer Steve Fox says.

Its short-term goal? Financially support lawmakers who back expanded rights for legitimate marijuana businesses, and perhaps, change some minds along the way, Fox said.

“We want people to appreciate, at the very least, that there are hundreds of legal, state-licensed cannabis businesses operating, and that they need to be represented on the federal level,” he said, adding that banking access and fair taxation are two of the association’s primary causes.

Fox acknowledges that he doesn’t exactly “see our PAC competing with the National Beer Wholesalers Association PAC anytime soon” in part because “we’re an industry dealing with decades of anti-cannabis propaganda being spread by the government.”

Nevertheless, federal lawmakers appear more open than ever to treating the legal marijuana industry “like any other industry,” and the National Cannabis Industry Association PAC intends to reach out to Democrats and Republicans alike, he said.

The association last year began lobbying the federal government, spending $20,000 to advocate for issues and legislation including the States’ Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act, congressional disclosure records show.